Cannabis sales have seen consistent year-over-year growth, but the pandemic has helped many delivery services launch or expand. Dispensaries were deemed “essential businesses” in nearly 30 states across the U.S. and, to meet new safety measures, many regulators allowed home delivery in areas where it previously wasn’t permitted.
The increased consumer demand for medical and recreational cannabis deliveries makes it a great time for businesses to optimize their delivery service. If you own or manage a cannabis dispensary, you can improve your delivery service with the addition of real-time driver location, route optimization, and customer notifications.
Many customers order cannabis products for medical purposes. In fact, medical marijuana made up 71% of legal cannabis sales in 2019. Many of these clients suffer from chronic pain, post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD), Crohn’s disease, anxiety, and other ailments that may make it difficult to walk or answer the door. Services that provide clients with accurate ETAs and delivery notifications make it easier for customers to mentally or physically prepare for the delivery.
Since orders must be delivered directly to customers and cannot be dropped off at a leasing office or generalized area, having precise navigation all the way to a customer’s front door is critical in order to provide accurate delivery notifications. As of now, Beans Route is the only app that navigates drivers to within 10ft. of a customer’s front door, even at apartments, condominiums, nursing homes, college campuses, and other large, complex areas. This precise data gives customers suffering with health or mental issues the reassurance that the delivery will arrive on time.
Even if your clients don’t suffer from medical hardships, customer notifications allow customers to plan their day around the expected drop off time instead of having to wait at home for hours unaware of when the driver will arrive. Delivery notifications keep customers updated on their order and cut down on calls to the dispatcher requesting the order status. Transactions are also quicker and more efficient when clients know your drivers are 5 minutes away.
GPS tracking allows dispatchers to view the current location of each driver. A dispensary can use this information to keep track of how the day’s deliveries are progressing and to monitor a driver’s whereabouts while completing deliveries.
Dispatch can also review previous records of drivers’ movements to ensure hourly employees aren’t straying outside their route.
Another benefit is added safety. Since cannabis is still illegal on the federal level, many dispensaries operate under a cash-only model. Criminals have been known to target cannabis delivery drivers by placing an order and then stealing both the cash and product drivers have in their vehicles. Added security measures, like real-time GPS tracking, act as a deterrent against this type of criminal behavior as the risk of getting caught increases.
To best reduce premeditated robberies, inform clients of any safety measures your company has in place before they are allowed to place an order.
Many dispensaries plan routes by hand. Not only is this time consuming, but pen and paper routes are inflexible and have no ability to adjust to traffic, time constraints, or other variables.
Route optimization software, on the other hand, creates cost effective routes within minutes that can easily accommodate adjustments made anytime throughout the route.
Companies that use route optimization software reduce the amount of time drivers spend completing deliveries and increase productivity as drivers complete more deliveries in a shorter time frame. Dispensaries can also provide customers with smaller, more accurate delivery windows which increases overall satisfaction with the delivery service.
Although cannabis companies can use multiple platforms to add these enhancements to their delivery service, there is an easier solution. Business and delivery management software, such as Beans Route, provides companies with real-time driver location, route optimization, delivery notifications, and more within a single dashboard.
With Beans Route’s extensive mapping data, drivers no longer need to figure out how to reach a client on their own. Beans Route navigates drivers straight to a customer and even highlights the closest parking, building entrance, and other important waypoints needed in order to take the quickest route to complete the delivery.
Other features and services Beans Route offers include:
The fear of being shut down due to another epidemic has spurred the interest of many entrepreneurs to focus on what states declared essential markets, like the marijuana industry. Additionally, a recent report by ArcView Market Research and BDS Analytics predicts that the global revenue of the legal cannabis industry is expected to grow to $40.6 billion by 2024 — a CAGR of 24.5%.
As a result of both the heightened interest in the industry and expected growth, marijuana businesses must seek out ways to stay competitive or risk slipping into the shadows as more prepared businesses step in to take their place. Thankfully, business and delivery management solutions, like Beans Route, make it easy for you to provide premium service to your clients and scale your delivery service as it evolves and grows.
To learn more or to see a demo of how Beans Route can benefit your dispensary, contact support@beansroute.ai or visit www.beansroute.ai.